Holland watched the skies darken in the distance, announcing the incoming arrival of disaster.
The weather on planet Kirshoff was not to read aning into, always random, always unpredictable and ever changing to the random passerby, but the atmosphere was ever so dreadful, forcing the human mind to cling onto their justified fears.
"DO!!"
A loud voice echoed through the walls of the base, followed by the appearance of three blue, shimring dos between them and the approaching army.
Turning back and looking upwards, Holland and the other recruits spotted the commander floating in the air, his presence like a steady boat in the middle of a stormy sea, unbound by emotions of fear and panic.
"It’s the commander!"
"He’s so calm. They must have predicted the attack!"
Whispers of hope flooded the walls and within, as his presence ever so slightly cald down the tension amongst them, especially the recruits.
Holland on the other hand was still fearful. Unlike the rest, he knew for a fact that they had been caught off guard. The camp had no idea of this attack.
There was no plan!
If there were, then their preparations had been severely interrupted.
"It’s a siege." His face fell even more when he ca to that conclusion.
Crescent wasn’t a military war base. It and every other base on the planet were established for the sole purpose of training recruits, either for the pillar families or the military itself.
The real fighting force had left over a century ago after ’clearing’ the planet of its threats.
The place with the best fighting force right now, was Origin.
Their only chance at survival was to get so reinforcent from them, and he was guessing the commander had already made so steps on that, but the issue was surviving till their help ca.
Origin was a rough eight thousand kiloters from their current location.
Holland didn’t doubt Origin’s speedy response to one of their most valuable bases, but even with that, it would take several days before they arrived.
They would have to duke it out with these beasts before then.
"Haa, maybe there is a way after all" Holland was feeling hopeful looking up at the three dos. The three layers of protection they had before they were completely obliterated.
One glance down army of beasts that spread into the distance, and that light dimd down a little.
"They outnumber us..."
"A thousand to one, probably more"
His unsteady gaze went over to his fellow recruits and soldiers on the wall and the ground, slowly moving up to the commander who seed unfazed by it all.
"Okay!" He gulped, wiping his sweaty hands off his shirt.
"Fear slows down reactions. Slowed reactions an death!" The commander’s words reached his ears calming his heartbeat, and he couldn’t agree more.
He really didn’t have the luxury of being constantly in fear, lest he wanted to die, and the one thing he loved the most was keeping his head.
"War is upon us!", the commander continued.
"It is sothing to be feared, but now isn’t the ti for fear! Now is the ti to stand ground against these rabid bastards", the commander’s cold eyes flashed across the recruits and soldiers.
"Today, you aren’t recruits. Today, you are soldiers! Today, you are brother in arms!! Today, you are comrades about to be washed in another round of blood and sweat!"
"No matter what, stand your ground. Hold the wall!"
His speech was calm and uninspiring, not aiming to stoke the fiery flas of the recruits, yet it had achieved its desired effect.
The eyes of both recruits, — No!
The eyes of the soldiers had steeled, devoid of the previous doubts and fears. It was understood by all. They were soldiers who served for a cause, and one had been given to them.
Stand their ground, hold the wall!
Even Holland was affected by the cold atmosphere that had taken over with the commander’s leave. He was part of them and had a role to play, an objective to complete.
Other instructors moved in, following the commander’s departure into the base.
They moved quickly, taking different parts of the army and issuing orders.
They base imdiately burst into action, each moving with an objective behind their steps.
"Get into positions and keep them in your line of sight! Rotations every 6 hours!"
"Go, now!"
’Instructor Josh’, Holland eyed the instructor with a lithe build barking out orders at them.
He was an instructor he didn’t have a favorable impression of, but personal feelings and work were two different things, sothing he understood perfectly as he moved in sync with the others, spreading across the wall and mounting a position.
They were divided into 2 categories according to their training.
The first consisted of single individuals taking close positions along the wall ard with a standard garde 2 plasma rifle and a single blade. Unlike the recruits at Origin, there was no choice when it ca to lee practice.
A single weapon was allowed—the sword.
The unilateral weapon of the military.
The second category was a group of three soldiers responsible for operating plasma cannons placed at several strategic points on the tall wall.
Despite its identity which was in essence a boot camp, Crescent had its ways of defense. The highest being the three dos deployed earlier.
"No attacks till they get to the second wall!"
Josh gave one final order before leaving to handle sothing else.
All that remained was silence, filled thick with the tension in the air.
The sounds of boots shuffling behind them faded into the background as each one of their gazes was locked into the distance at the threat that appeared almost stagnant.
Yet it wasn’t, it was slowly approaching, inch by inch, ter by ter, and they were tasked with the responsibility of reacting first, alerting the rest of the base.
"And so, we watch!" A forr recruit beside Holland said to him with a brave expression, yet Holland could see him rub his hand on the dusty floor to get rid of his sweat.
Behind all the bravado, he was nervous. It was his first fight after all.
"Yeah,... we watch," Holland muttered placing his gaze back ahead of him.
An hour passed by.
The enemy hadn’t reached the first do, their figures still seed fixed in the distance.
Two hours went by, and Holland was still focused, his gaze not flickering in the slightest.
The sa went for the other recruits.
Twice that ti passed — Four hours.
He had pretty much lost sensations from all parts of his body except his hand on the plasma rifle and his eyes trained on the enemy.
The five-hour mark reached and his eyes were still open, despite the sweat dripping across and into them.
The other recruits had started to show signs of faltering. They could easily ace this on any other day, but their nervousness filled with the nerve-racking wait drained them faster than they noticed.
Finally, the six-hour mark hit.
It was ti to switch places with the next shift, yet all Holland had noticed was a slight increase in size of the enemy. A sign that they weren’t fixed in place and were in fact still approaching.
"They aren’t as far as we think."
Holland had a small frown of concern looking up into the sky.
His replacent ca over to switch and he left, moving to the other side of the wall, looking for a place to sit.
"Haa!"
A tired sigh ca from him as he sat his stiff body down. Gripping the rifle close to him, he decided to shut his uncombed thoughts and chose the best thod to recover his lost energy — sleep.
He wouldn’t be needed till the next 6 hours, and so Holland went to sleep, waking up sowhere between twenty to thirty minutes intervals to check on his surroundings before sleeping again.
6 hours was a short amount of ti when one was sleeping, even after waking up at intervals.
Hearing the beep of his watch signifying his turn to resu position, Holland got up with his rifle and mounted his position on the wall once more only for his eyes to narrow sharply.
"Three tis.... No! Five tis!"
"....Ten tis!"
In the past six hours, the size of the beast army had beco extrely clear and a soft vibration could be felt on the wall under his feet.
Judging by the size of the army, the beasts had increased their speed by ten tis compared to the first six hours when he was on watch!!!
He took a huge gulp and tightened his grip on the pointed rifle.
For the next few hours, Holland made sure no thoughts penetrated his mind, trying hard to maintain a machine-like state.
Unfortunately, not all forr recruits were as collected.
Fearful and nervous expressions could be spotted on quite a number of them as they watched the imnse army approach slowly, like a sea of crawling bugs.
"Why?"
After five torturously slow hours, Holland looked up into the sky again in confusion.
An ominous sensation had suddenly appeared in his heart. The sa sensation of fear he felt when the sky darkened at the beasts’ appearance. An ominous feeling and occurrence that he pushed away and attributed to the erratic weather changes of Planet Kirshoff.
Now? He wasn’t so sure.
The weather was deed erratic cause it changed randomly several tis a day, yet it had been over 15 hours, and not a single change had occurred to the gloomy weather.
He didn’t know why, but he had a bad feeling about it.
"W-whats..that light!!!"
A recruit close by shouted, pointing into the distance, and Holland’s head snapped back down, looking through the scope of his rifle.
Just ahead in the distance was a shining blue light amassing in front of the still hazy figure of destruction high in the air.
The scene lasted only for a few seconds before a bright flash appeared, blinding most of them, forcing them to look away.
And then, what they had all been dreading, yet also awaiting finally happened.
A loud bang was heard. Holland and everyone on the wall looked up instantly, only to see the shattered remains of the first do.
Their greatest defense.
The lights of hope in the weak recruits were imdiately snuffed out, and even Holland was shaken, imdiately re-evaluating his previous thoughts.
"Maybe we just might die here."
A cursed mutter escaped his lips, watching the now visible beasts rush towards the second do like ants attracted to sugar.
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